2026 Undergraduate Student Awards
CREATIVE WRITING
Bain-Swiggett Award for a single poem (32 lines or fewer) ...$150
Bain-Swiggett Award for a single poem (32 lines or more) ...$150
Brian Mexicott Award for an original play or screenplay ...$100
Department of English Award for a short story ...$200
Department of English Award for creative nonfiction essay ...$200
Department of English Award for Experiment in Form ...$100:
- Any piece of either prose or poetry that introduces a new formal approach not usually associated with that genre
- any piece that combines both lineated verse and prose
- or any piece that combines visual image with either prose or poetry or both, but is not a graphic novel, which is its own separate genre
Department of English Award for best speculative fiction ...$100
Department of English Award for Flash fiction ...$100
Margaret Church Memorial Award for a short story ...$150
Prose poem Award ...$100
Paul Sidwell Memorial Award for a novel-in-progress (30-40 pages plus outline) ...$150
Tom Andrews Clapping Award for a sequence of five or more thematically related poems, or one long poem of at least five pages ...$200
LITERARY CRITICISM
Helen Bass Williams Award for best critical essay on African, African American or Black Literature ...$100
Leonora Woodman Award for best essay on women's literature ...$100
Peter C. Braeger Memorial Award for an essay on Medieval or Renaissance Studies …$100
R.W. Babcock Award for essay on Shakespeare ...$100
Sarah Fielding Award for the best essay on Children's or Young Adult Literature ...$100
INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CLA AWARDS
CLA Diversity Action Committee Award for best creative writing work or essay addressing the significance of diversity in our society ...$100
Department of Anthropology Award for best ethnographic essay ...$100
Disability Studies Award for an essay or creative writing exploring some aspect of disability studies ...$100
Environmental Studies and Nature Writing Award for an essay or creative writing exploring some aspect of environmentalism/nature ...$100
LGBTQ Studies Award for an essay or creative writing exploring some aspect of sexuality and gender studies ...$100
School of Design, Art, and Performance Award for best essay analyzing some aspect of art history ...$100
School of Languages and Cultures Award for Literary/Cultural Analysis of texts written in a language other than English ...$100
Science, Technology and the Humanities Award for an essay exploring the impact of science and technology on society and culture including literature/film ...$100
KNEALE AWARDS
Kneale Award in American Literature (any aspect or author) ...$200 (first place) ...$100 (second place)
Kneale Award in British Literature (any aspect or author) ...$200 (first place) ...$100 (second place)
Kneale Award in History ...$200 (first place) ...$100 (second place)
Kneale Award in Postcolonial Literature ...$200 (first place) ...$100 (second place)
Sponsored by the Department of English, the Purdue University Libraries, the Honors College, the Black Cultural Center, Arthuriana, and Modern Fiction Studies.